cool-season vegetables

The National Weather Service posted a frost advisory for my area (north Georgia) for last Sunday night. One bit of good news is that the frost did not appear. The other bit of good news is that I know how to prepare my garden for the first frost in fall.

Most of that preparation started many weeks ago, but there are always some last minute things to consider. This is what I did to get ready:

Pepper harvest before the projected frost.

The evening before the projected frost, I harvested the largest of the remaining peppers. The peppers are the last of my warm-season crops, along with a little basil still standing out there. The cucumbers are already gone from the garden.

That is pretty much all I did, because most plants in my garden are ready for colder weather. The cool-season crops will do just fine in the early freezes of autumn. Some flowers will look terrible after a frost, but that is the way it goes. Some perennials, including a few herbs (thyme, rosemary, for example), will keep green leaves through the winter, and others will die back — turning brown and crunchy — but grow back from their roots in spring. I don’t worry about any of these.

This is a more complete list of some steps I take most years to get ready for the first frost:

Garden checklist to prepare for the first frost

Harvest remaining warm-season crops that are mature enough to either finish ripening indoors or use “as is” in the kitchen.

Check soil moisture. If the soil is dry, water the garden. Roots in moist soil are better-protected from cold than roots in dry soil. (We have had enough rain recently that soil moisture is plentiful.)

If I had frost-tender plants that I wanted to protect (like a still-healthy tomato plant), to keep them growing another few weeks, I would cover them with row-covers or other fabric. Often, the first frost is followed by a stretch of warmer weather that allows warm-season crops to keep producing, if they survived.

If I hadn’t already done this, I would pinch off any flowers and flower-buds that were on my warm-season crops (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc), to encourage the plants to put their remaining energy into maturing their existing fruits.

Cool-season crops do not usually need protection (like row-covers) for the first frost, so I don’t cover these. An exception would be if the plants were late going into the garden and, as a result, still just seedlings. Another would be when the frost follows a stretch of very warm days (highs in the 70s, for example), which could leave the plants unprepared to withstand a sudden drop into freezing temperatures. In the South, this happens.

Garden carrots do not need to be covered through the first frost in Autumn.

Where I live, north of Atlanta, the first frost usually shows up around the first of November, which is soon.

When the first freezes finally arrive, it will be time to remove the last of the summer crops. If you are taking a break from gardening this winter (some people who aren’t me do this), be sure to cover the soil with some kind of mulch. Mulch protects the soil, preventing erosion by rain/wind and helping to maintain its fertility.

Ichi Ki Kei Jiro persimmons ripen near the time of the first frost in my yard.

The first seeds in the ground for my fall garden are two kinds of carrots and a winter radish. I also planted one last round of basil, so there will be more pesto in my freezer to use in wintertime meals.

First seeds planted for my fall garden, plus one last summer herb. PHOTO/Amygwh

This year’s carrots: ‘Bolero’ and ‘Short Stuff’

The two varieties, ‘Bolero’ and ‘Short Stuff’, are shorter carrots that will do well in the clay soil of my in-ground garden.

‘Short stuff’ is also recommended as a good choice for container plantings. The fully-mature carrots will be only about 4-inches long, but wide at the top.

‘Bolero’ will be longer, closer to 6-inches at harvest, but slender all the way down.

I amended the soil by adding a nearly-full bucket (5-gallon size) of yard compost to the garden bed before planting. This addition will loosen the soil and improve the odds that the carrots will grow as they should.

The seedlings have not yet come up, but when they do, they will get a dose of the kind of fish emulsion fertilizer that promotes root growth (higher phosphorus than nitrogen).

You may be wondering why I already planted seeds for carrots, in mid-August. The reason is that crops mature more slowly in fall than in spring. If I want to harvest carrots before mid-December, they need to be in the ground, in my garden, now. (For more details, read my book.)

The first winter radishes

‘Watermelon’ winter radish seeds also are in the garden. The current packet says they take 60 days to reach maturity, but older packets from other seed companies have claimed 70-days, which is closer to the speed they grew in my garden. I decided to use 70-days as my working number to determine the planting date, as a result.

Most of the winter radishes will only make good bulbs in fall, in the time of shortening day length. I don’t know why. Some plants are just like that.

That means, though, that this is a crop that can ONLY be had from a fall garden. If anyone in your family loves radishes (a rare thing, I know), plant these soon!

Heat sink surprise

Raised bed with beet seedlings and young onions, in mid-August, in Chicago. PHOTO/Amygwh

When I was in Chicago last week, I noticed that many vegetable gardens already contained plenty of cool-season seedlings. Considering how much further north Chicago is from here, it made sense that fall gardening would already be well-underway.

However, when I looked up its hardiness zone, I was surprised. Chicago is in plant hardiness zone 6a, according to the newer USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. The plant hardiness zone where I live, north of Atlanta, is 7b. That difference in hardiness zones, between Chicago and north-metro-Atlanta, is less than I expected.

Most of area around Chicago (all the northern half of Illinois) is in plant hardiness zone 5, according to the USDA map. That seems more reasonable than 6a. Chicago, which is a large city containing a lot of concrete, must be the same kind of heat-sink that Atlanta is (most of Atlanta is in zone 8a). That could account for part of the difference. Lake Michigan could account for the rest, since enormous bodies of water also help keep nearby air temperatures more moderate.

Update on the ‘Astia’ zucchini

Flower bud on young ‘Astia’ zucchini plant, in the “v” between two stems (main stem and leaf petiole).

The ‘Astia’ zucchini that is growing in my half-barrel planter is still alive. There are no signs yet of leaf-mildew-diseases, which is good news. The other good news is that, even though the seedlings have only been up for a couple of weeks, I can see the buds of flowers forming on the plants.

These flower buds will keep growing, until the flower buds open. Some flowers will be “girls”, which are the ones that make the zucchini that we eat. Some flowers will be ‘boys’. After the boys have done their job of pollinating the girls, I plan to harvest those boy flowers to use in cooking.

While in Italy over the summer, Joe and I enjoyed fried squash blossoms at the Sax Wine Bar in Montepulciano. We are going to make those ourselves, since the good ladies at Sax Wine Bar are in Italy and we are not.

A co-worker, many years ago, who knew that I love plants, asked me what she should plant in a very large blue glazed pot that she had just bought.

Container plantings of mixed flowers and herbs, along with kale and Swiss chard, decorate various areas at Calloway Gardens and Hills & Dales Estate in Georgia.

At the time, all I could imagine was a central cluster of three dwarf okra (like ‘Cajun Jewel’), surrounded by bush beans and bright orange ‘Tangerine’ marigolds. Even now, that still seems like it would be just about perfect in a large blue pot.

There are plenty of people locally, though, who would hesitate to plant such a mix, even if it appealed to their own sense of aesthetics, because many Homeowner Associations (HOAs) prohibit the planting of edibles where they can be seen by the public.

However, there are also gardeners who are untroubled by such rules but who want to maintain a formal style while including more edibles in their yards. These gardeners might consider mixing herbs and leafy greens in with their cool-season flowers.

On a recent trip to Calloway Gardens and Hills & Dales Estate (both are about an hour’s drive South of Atlanta), the cool-season container plantings included parsley, red veined sorrel (at Calloway), Swiss chard (Hills & Dales), and several kinds of kale. These herbs and leafy greens either accented the floral display, or, in a few instances, they were the main feature.

All of the containers plantings were beautiful, and they did not look out of place, even among the clipped boxwood hedges, stone columns, and statuary.

I will be curious to find out how the plantings change for summer. Parsley works the whole year here in the South, but other herbs and greens will need to be switched for plants that can take a lot more heat. Maybe it will all be changed to okra, marigolds, and bush beans!

If you were putting together planters for a formal setting, that had to stand up to a Southern summer, what edibles would you include?

My small organic vegetable garden is providing greens right now. Kale and spinach are growing together in a half-barrel in the front yard. I started these indoors, from seeds, while it was still winter. Before moving them outside permanently, I used one of those warmer weeks in February to harden them off. By “harden them off”, I mean that I moved them into a dappled sun area for a few hours while it was warm. Each day, the plants spent a little more time outside. After six days of this transition-time, I set the small plants into their current positions in the half-barrel planter.

Winter-planted kale and spinach produce plenty of greens in early spring. PHOTO/Amy Whitney

In this little greens-garden, three kale plants are clustered near the center, and nine spinach plants are set, evenly spaced, in a big ring near the outer edge.

These container-greens, along with the rocket that is still growing with cilantro in another large container, add variety in texture and flavor to lettuce-based salads.

The kale is producing enough leaves that some can also go into a white-bean soup in a few days, with plenty left for other purposes (shepherd’s pie, pizza toppings, salad, etc.).

Intensively-planted garlic grows throughout the winter, making a small forest of garlic. PHOTO/Amy Whitney

Also in the garden, the garlic, which was spaced in a grid-pattern at planting time, resembles a little forest.

This was planted back in early winter (I missed the recommended October planting time for my area). The stems rising out of the ground look thick enough to make decent-sized bulbs, so maybe the late planting won’t hurt the harvest too much.

Garlic, shallots, and onions all benefit from a little extra fertilizer as they start making their bulbs (now, in my garden), so I am applying fish emulsion fertilizer (the 2-3-1 version), mixed with water in my watering can, every 7-10 days.

My onions are not bulbing onions — I planted the bunching type this year — but the extra fertilizer helps them, too, to make more little onions.

A guide to choosing and growing crops and setting a planting schedule that will work for a fall garden in the Southeastern US.

Also — my biggest news — my little book on Fall Garden Planning is nearing completion! I should be receiving a couple of “proof” copies this week. If all looks good, the book will be available within a few weeks.

Writing it, and learning all the technology bits to get it published, has been a grand adventure! I have been lucky, too, to have some very tolerant/patient friends who read an early version of the text and said nice things about it even though it had a long way to go.

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